J.R. Hildebrand

Hildebrand, the 21-year-old Indy Lights champion, recently tested a Force India F1 car at Jerez, Spain, an opportunity that could have landed him the team's primary test driver role. Although his only run on soft tires was hampered by electronic problems, the Sausalito, California, resident nevertheless finished 10th quickest out of 16 drivers at the test. Here's what this graduate of the Team USA Scholarship program has to say about the experience.

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We understand you earned this test by doing well on Force India's simulator in England. How close to reality is a modern F1 simulator?

I'd say that it's as realistic as you can get without feeling the g-forces of the car. It reacts and behaves like a real car. The steering weight and feel are quite good, and the visuals of the track and car are very accurate. I would, however, say that the forces you actually undergo in the car make the experience at the track a bit more intensive.

You finished 10th out of 16 on the charts. Are you satisfied with the results?

Satisfied with the time sheets? Not particularly. Satisfied with how things were really going? Absolutely. On every run that I would have been able to put in a competitive lapso we're talking lower fuel, new tire runsI was either in a conservative engine setting by mistake or caught out by stoppages on the circuit. So while it was frustrating that the times weren't there, it was quite apparent that they weren't representative of the speed we actually had. I went into the test with a particular goal of coming to grips with what the car was capable of at high speeds because I figured that that would be a pretty limiting factor if I couldn't. And that became an area in which I was particularly strong during the test, so I was really quite satisfied with it all. I had a great time working with the team; they were incredibly helpful through everything.

What's the toughest part of driving a modern Grand Prix car?

Initially, it's just getting used to what the car is actually capable of doing. It's almost mind-bending at first how deep you can go into the corners and how little you have to slow for the high-speed stuff. Having said that, the toughest thing for me was just adjusting to the attitude of the car through the slower corners and the approach that it seemed to require. The bigger and softer sidewall tires that most European formulas use makes for a much different feel and behavior through the corner than what I've gotten used to in the States.

Was this a real shot at the test driver role for Force India?

I do believe it was. Everyone took it very seriously and we went through a pretty realistic testing program when in the car. I'd have to say that I didn't really look at it in a competitive way, but took it very seriously as an opportunity to learn and be challenged in a totally different way. I had never driven an F1 car, never been to the circuit before, and have only brief experience in similarly handling cars so my learning curve was particularly steep and I knew that. Like I said before, I was pretty pumped that we were actually really quick regardless of the fact that it unfortunately didn't show up on the sheets.

In retrospect, what might you have done differently in Jerez?

Well, for one, I'd have made sure that I was in all the right settings before going for the big times! In hindsight, I think I could have tried some different things to manage the way the car handled at corner entry, or maybe been more adamant about needing some changes because that was an area that was limiting with how I wanted to drive the car.